Fortunately, Harper soon came out of the fitting room quickly.
Just sitting here had made me nod off a bit.
Harper called my name softly, and my eyes snapped open.
I was thankful that Harper didn’t seem to notice my strangeness. She was too wrapped up in her dress…as she should be. She lifted the hem of the big mating dress and walked around in front of her and Damian.
Wolf shifters didn’t have the same superstitions about mates seeing the dress before the wedding, which I’d always loved.
And I really loved the look on Damian’s face right now. It was one of absolute awe and worship.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“It’s beautiful,” I gushed.
“My baby looks beautiful, no matter what she wears,” Damian replied, a giant grin on his face as he looked at his future mate.
Harper beamed and walked over to kiss his cheek.
Damian caressed her face affectionately.
I was so excited for them. They’d been together for a long time, and they’d already gone through so much. They’d been apart while Damian had gone to college, and Harper had confided in me that his childhood had been a bit rough, even though his situation was different from ours, and he still had a family and a pack.
But it definitely made him understand Harper more, and I knew that he would cherish the family they built together. They would both be wonderful parents for their pups.
I wished I had found a man like Damian. Life would have been a lot easier and happier.
“Are you ready to pick your dress, Taya?” Harper asked me when the sales a*sociate came over with a rack of dresses.
Harper’s dress had cost a small fortune, so the store was providing my dress.
“Umm…” I hemmed and hawed. I was so thin and pale, nothing would look good on me or fit properly. I didn’t even want to think about how awful any of these colors would look against my ghostly complexion. “They’re all so gorgeous, I don’t even know where to start…”
“Ooh! I’ll pick!” Harper clapped her hands together, her eyes gleaming.
Whew. Exactly what I’d hoped for.
Harper quickly picked a champagne-colored dress and asked me to try it on.
Once it was on, I stared at myself in the dressing room mirror, shaking my head before walking out. There was no way Harper was going to NOT see how much weight I’d lost.
Harper touched my waist. There was no flesh, only bones.
She looked at my pale face as if seeing for the first time how truly washed-out I looked. She narrowed her gaze on me, her face stern. “Taya, why have you lost so much weight?”
Luckily, I’d already thought about this.
Now I just needed Harper to be so consumed by her mating ceremony preparations that she believed me.
“I lost weight for your mating ceremony.”
Harper frowned. “You’re practically skin and bones, love. Why are you still losing weight?!”
I opened my mouth to brush her off and tell her that I had stopped, but I was saved by one of the girls in the shop coming over and ushering us toward the makeup counter to decide on our look for the day-of.
After we finished at the dress shop and getting dresses and makeup decided on, the three of us went to the hotel for a final meeting with the mating ceremony coordinator. Since Harper wasn’t officially part of Damian’s pack until after they were mated, she hadn’t wanted to have their ceremony at his pack center. A hotel was neutral territory, and it would make Harper feel more comfortable.
“Let me take you both out to dinner when I get off work.” Damian kissed Harper’s cheek as we exited the hotel.
“I’d love that, babe,” Harper replied, standing on her tiptoes to return his kiss.
When Harper and I returned to the house, Harper started fussing around with packing. Damian had bought a house for he and Harper to live in after they were mated. It was on his pack’s land so that they would be closer to his family, and they would have help with their pups once they started their family.
“I’m so glad you’re staying here,” Harper said as she packed. “Buying this house was the first thing I ever really accomplished, and I don’t like the idea of a stranger living here.”
Just another reason she was going to be devastated when I was gone.
I nodded with a smile, not able or wanting to verbalize how I was feeling right now.
“I’m going to leave a few things here, though. For when I stay over for girls’ nights,” Harper said, going through some of her pajamas and setting them aside.
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t.
Better to change the subject. “I have a wedding gift for you.”
“Oh?!”
“Wait a minute,” I said, then went to my bedroom. I opened the drawer, took out a debit card, and handed it to her.
This is a dowry that I saved for you.”
Harper took the card and looked back and forth between it and me, a confused expression on her face.
“But… what do you mean? Why?”
“I know Damian’s family said they didn’t need one, since they know your history. I just… I want to make sure you start off on the right foot with them, that they don’t hold it against you later.”
It was an old-fashioned practice, but wolf shifters typically received dowries when someone from outside their pack married into their pack. Essentially, packs cared for their pack mates. Everything from child care to school to food to medical. Anything that was needed, if you were part of a close-knit pack that abided by the “old ways” like Damian’s did, it was tradition for the she-wolf’s family to give a gift to help with the cost of anything needed for her or future pups.
Was the money actually required? Nah. It was more a gesture of goodwill between the packs.
Over the years, I’d divided my salary into several parts-one for Griffon, one for Harper, and the other for living expenses.
I wasn’t a lot, but if something didn’t go smoothly for Harper Fter marriage, having some extra money on hand could give her peace of mind. Because if Damian and Harper split up, the pack would return the dowry to Harper, per pack law.
Harper was more than a little shocked when Taya handed her a debit card.
She didn’t think there was anything left after Taya paid Griffon back.
He’ll, she’d thought about how she could help Taya out with expenses…not the other way around. So this? This was surprising to say the least.
No wonder Taya was so thin. She’d been scrimping and saving to not only pay Griffon back, but to do this.
Harper touched Taya’s cheek and shook her head. “Taya… You didn’t have to do this for me.”
Taya smiled gently and said, “I wanted to.”
Harper shook her head again and pressed the debit card back into Taya’s hand. “I can’t take this. I’m older than you; I’m basically your older sister. Only older sisters prepare dowry for younger sisters if their parents aren’t around. Besides, since you aren’t a shifter, it’s not your responsibility.”
“Harper-”
Uh-uh. You need to keep this for yourself. Without a pack to rely on, I worry about you.”